Kazakh government employment, training policies show positive results

    One-hundred-seventy-four individuals started their own businesses and 384 loans were granted in the first half of this year as part of the second direction of the Productive Employment and Mass Entrepreneurship Development programme, announced Birzhan Nurymbetov, Vice Minister of Labour and Social Protection at a July 11 press briefing.
    “It is planned to issue 5,800 loans for citizens in cities and villages in the second direction of the programme. This year, 384 loans were issued and 45 percent or 174 people of these are involved in start-up projects. This created more jobs and 224 people got jobs through employment centres,” said Nurymbetov.
    Courses in Entrepreneurship for Starting a Business were launched as part of the Bastau-Business project initiated by the Atameken National Chamber of Entrepreneurs. It hopes to attract 15,000 people to this programme this year. At the moment, 4,900 people have been enrolled in the training courses and 4,100 people have completed training.
    “In general, the business activity area of projects includes livestock in the amount of 68 percent and services in the amount of 6 percent,” said the vice minister.
    As of July 1, 151,700 people were registered as unemployed in the employment agencies. It is planned to attract 21,300 individuals for technical and vocational educational programmes and 70,300 for the short-term vocational training courses.
    “The regional commissions have approved a list of more than 360 educational organisations and courses will be provided as part of the traineeships. For the reporting period, 921 people applied for training courses. The training will be conducted in the most in-demand jobs including plumbing, electricity supply, hotel service management, construction and operation of gas and oil pipelines and gas and oil storage facilities, and many others. As of July 1, 21,127 people have already participated in the short-term training,” he said.
    More than 82,000 people were employed in the first half of 2017 under the third direction of the Productive Employment and Mass Entrepreneurship Development Programme.
    As part of the employment assistance, more than 82,000 Kazakh citizens were employed in social workplaces, youth practice and public works in the first half of the year, according to Vice Minister of Labour and Social Protection Birzhan Nurymbetov.
    He said 17,901 people were employed for social workplaces, which is 109 percent of the planned indicator. The largest number of 5,710 people found the social jobs in the South Kazakhstan region, 806 people were employed in the North Kazakhstan region and in the Kostanai region the number was 860. The smallest numbers were registered in Astana (162 people) and in Almaty (379 people).
    Around 12,578 people were sent for youth practice, which is 74 percent of the planned indicator. The biggest number for the youth practice was registered in the South Kazakhstan region (3,709 people) and in Kyzylorda region (925 people). In the North Kazakhstan, 329 people went to a youth practice, while the number in the Karaganda region was 774 people.
    And 51,705 people were sent to public works, which is 69.6 percent of the plan.
    Kazakhstan has started implementing the Productive Employment and Mass Entrepreneurship Development Programme this year only. The programme provides mass training and skills development in demanded professions and business basics, creation of conditions for mass entrepreneurship through lending, labour market development via assistance in employment and support for labour mobility. The programme’s first direction is to provide technical and vocational education, while the second direction is to provide micro-loans and trainings for 15,000 people in the basics of entrepreneurship.
    In April, Kazakh Minister of Labour and Social Protection Tamara Dyuissenova announced that this year 85.3 billion tenge (US$261.2 million) was allocated to implement the programme.
    Reported by the Astana Times.